Thunderstorms
by mollywweh
Summary: Tavros is in college where he has known Gamzee for a few months who works in a nearby record shop. I'm planning on writing more chapters. I'd love anyone's input on the story since it is my first one c:
1. Morning Routine

The smell of a recent thunderstorm lingered in the air as the quiet freckled boy walked around his campus. Almost nobody else was out walking, because it was in fact 8 in the morning, and everyone was either in class or still slumbering in their dorms, bashing the snooze button more times than necessary. Tavros didn't mind that nobody else was outside. He liked the subdued solidity of the campus after a storm had passed. Not everyone wanted to slosh around in the muck left behind by the showers, but Tavros just pulled on his black boots to go off and enjoy the peaceful environment that was not always present at his university.

His first class would begin at promptly noon, and until then he had developed a routine of sitting on the old bench on the right side of the courtyard (because there was also an old bench on the left side of the courtyard, but it simply would not do, it had to be the right side) and eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Crunchy peanut butter. Grape jelly. He made it with the utmost care before leaving his apartment almost silently, allowing his roommate to catch a few more z's while he began his day.

After breakfast Tavros liked to meander around a bit, taking in all the scenery that he hadn't quite gotten used to since he left his home state of California for college in Ohio. Meandering for days on end before class had eventually led him to what was now, one of Tavros's favorite places to be. The record shop.

The door jingled slightly as a slim hand pushed it open. Tavros had always been known (and sometimes teased) for having particularly dainty hands for someone of the male persuasion. The boy behind the counter looked up from his most-likely-pornographic reading material and smiled at the regular customer. Tavros smiled back. The counter-boy closed up his magazine, and brushed a stray wisp of matted hair away from his own face, while it proceeded to flop back down to an even worse position in front of his eyeball than before.

"What can I get for ya today Tav-bro?" Gamzee talked rather slow, and his words were a bit slurred at times, probably because he was frequently smoking weed. Nonetheless, the nicknames he dubbed Tavros with were endearing, and Tavros blushed a little when Gamzee called him by any one of the numerous names he had made up over the course of a couple months.

"I'm just, uh, browsing," Tavros replied in a soft voice. When he did speak, which wasn't often, there was always a touch of hesitation in his voice. He always wanted to think about exactly what words to use before he used them, but that wasn't a constant option. The kid was always so careful about everything. Judging by his appearance, which was identical to his look from the day before as well, most people could tell this was true.

His legs were remarkably thin, almost bony even, but we won't go so far as to say that. His black pants made his legs almost less thin, but not by much. He wore a lightweight black t-shirt underneath a black jacket three sizes too large for him. He was immensely gangly for a boy of 20. Tavros's face was slim and pale and covered with a splash of freckles, just a shade darker than his light brown eyes. His hair was shaved close to his head on either side, with a small bang that flopped down in the center of his face. Tavros would swing it out of his eyes every so often, pausing to do so. A small nose ring was centered in between his petite nostrils.

At the time when he'd got his nose pierced, he thought that possibly by having a nose ring it would make his introvert-esque appearance a tad bit more intimidating. Tavros couldn't quite say that it worked, but he did like the look of the ring.

Gamzee was gangly, too, but much taller than Tavros. Tavros was of average height for someone of his age, but Gamzee was a tree. He was a bit more olive-toned than the fair skinned Tavros. His mop of scraggly black hair almost always completely engulfed the gaunt, yet still pleasant-looking frame of his face. Although you couldn't normally see them, his eyes were a deep, uncommon shade of purple. Gamzee usually carried around with him the faint odor of marijuana and faygo soda. It wasn't a bad odor, though. Tavros almost kind of…well…liked it.

Gamzee never really was one for a proper dress code. One thing his fashion choice almost always included was pajamas, and one thing it never included was a hairbrush for that unruly lion's mane. Nonetheless, he was an exceptionally good-looking guy.

Gamzee chuckled at Tavros and went back to his magazine, allowing him to browse the records in peace. Tavros liked Gamzee. He was always very nice to Tavros. He appreciated the way that Gamzee could laugh at someone, but in a warm way. He never had bad intentions, as far as Tavros could tell. He was just a stoner in the midst of a college campus, observing any of the students who passed by or entered the record shop. Gamzee didn't attend the university anymore. He had graduated a year prior, and had chosen to remain close to the school anyway, because rent near the campus was fairly affordable.

Tavros loved the record shop for many reasons, one of which being that Gamzee did not mind that he would stay and contemplate each and every record for hours on end, sometimes without buying a single thing. He also liked the fact that although this small shop held so much music, it was always the quietest place he could go to think, the only noise being the almost imperceptible classic rock often playing in the background. The air in the shop was not far from antique, as were many of the records. The subdued smell of must wafted out from the shelves as Tavros pulled down a record that caught his eye.

After carefully examining the front and back side of the ancient form of media, Tavros held it gingerly in his hands and walked up to the counter where Gamzee sat, still amply reading his strange digest. His eyes fluttered upwards as Tavros approached the cash register. As Tavros set the record he had chosen down on the surface of the counter, Gamzee broke into a large toothy grin. "One of my personal favorites Tavrocious!" his words slightly slurred, as usual. The album was the old Beatles classic, _Abbey Road. _"You gonna be needing a bad for this shit?" Gamzee swore often, but Tavros didn't mind. He found it strangely winsome. "Yes, thank you," Tavros replied quickly, his hazel eyes briefly crossing Gamzee's face for just a moment.

Gamzee bagged the album and handed it to Tavros, while another grin escaped his lips. "You have a motherfuckin good time listenin' to that!" he called out as Tavros exited the shop. The door jingled as he stepped out onto the damp sidewalk, and he smiled. Gamzee watched him leave from the storefront window.


	2. The Phone Call

Gamzee could see Tavros's small form moving further and further away from the storefront window. Small rain drops fell to the sidewalk in a steady pattern. When Tavros's narrow frame was no longer visible from the glass, Gamzee turned away to deal with the record store.

The store was old. Few people went in the store on a daily basis, so most of the records were covered with a growing layer of dust, some having accumulated more than others depending on how long they've sat untouched. The faint fragrance of mildew accompanied the the faded carpet covering the ground. The store was cluttered with boxes of unsorted records which should have been shelved ages ago, but have been sitting too long now for anyone to even care anymore; and Gamzee's extensive collection of comic books and magazines that he kept at his workplace for when boredom struck him on the job. A bottle of Faygo lay on its side behind the counter, just where he'd left it the day before.

Gamzee didn't mind the messy store. It reminded him a little of his home, which by comparison was of course a lot messier. He walked around the area of the shop for a bit in his baggy purple pajama pants, before going to take his place behind the counter as usual. His boss was never around, so he almost always had the store to himself. It was nice, the kind of silence only halfheartedly disturbed by the muffled background music the store constantly had playing over the solitary speaker near the back entrance. Settling down with his reading material, something kept clouding his consciousness of his surroundings. He was unable to focus on the comic, or anything for that matter. _Maybe I had a little too much motherfuckin' faygo today, _thought Gamzee, his mind certainly filled with more bubbles than the fizzy soda pop could hold.

What he realized were fogging his senses were his nerves. Before Tavros had left the store earlier Gamzee had been noticing some things about the boy that he had never acknowledged before. Not even any major occurrences, but things that he thought may have always been present, but he had just failed to recognize it. For instance the way Tavros has...freckles? Had he never noticed the freckles before? They really did suit his face. And the way he gets tongue tied is also quite endearing; attractive even. Gamzee chuckled to himself, remembering the way Tavros's face scrunched with embarrassment when he was unable to put into words what he wanted to say.

All of those things had been nagging at the back of his skull while Tavros browsed the extensive collection of records, and Gamzee couldn't shake it. That pallid freckly kid had been in and out of the store too many times to count, and Gamzee felt as though he knew him quite well, even though he hardly spoke. There wouldn't be any possibility of a friendship, or maybe something else, would there? Before his brain could grasp the concept of what was happening, there was a pen in his hand and it was moving rapidly across a sticky note on the counter. _FUCK._

Tavros was approaching him with a record in hand by this point, and Gamzee decided to follow his instincts and put the sticky note in the bag with the purchase.

Now Gamzee's stomach was tied in multiple tangles, and he regretted ever putting in the note. _He won't call. He'll just think you're a creepy-ass stoner who lazes around all day. He's never gonna call you._ Words flew in and out of his ears as he murmured them softly to himself. He slammed his head back on the wall behind him, trying to calm himself down. Luckily he still had his bramble of hair to cushion the blow.

"FUCK I'M SO STUPID," Gamzee exclaimed, rather loudly to himself. His low voice rang loud throughout the confines of the empty store. It was only then that he realized his voice was not the only thing that was ringing.

Gamzee leapt not-so-gracefully towards the jingling of the phone, stumbling over a stray box of records in his haste to see who was calling. After righting himself from his fall, he noticed that it wasn't his cell phone ringing, but the record shop land line. His long, pale face became even longer with the growing disappointment swelling in his stomach.

"Hello," Gamzee mumbled into the receiver.

"Uh…hi…it's me uh…Tavros?"

Gamzee's mind sprung to attention when he heard the boy's faltering tone through the line. _Why is he calling the store instead of my phone? _Gamzee wondered to himself.

"Hey, Tavioli!" Gamzee grimaced at his attempt to make up a new nickname for Tavros on the spot like that, making a note to himself to come up with nicknames before actual conversations. "How can I help my main motha-fuckin bro?"

Tavros laughed nervously into the phone. "Uhh, heh, well you see… I'm about halfway home right now and I opened the bag to admire my new record..and um…I found a sticky note with someone's number on it…"

Gamzee's stomach lurched when he heard him say that, but he stayed silent because he could tell Tavros wasn't finished yet.

"and uhh, I was too nervous to call because I thought it might not be meant for me…" Tavros ended the sentence with a small release of air, as though he had been holding his breath before he spoke. He could feel Tavros's blush through the phone.

Gamzee almost laughed with relief, and he must have let a little air between his lips because he could hear Tavros chewing on his lip; a habit he usually had when he was nervous, he'd noticed. "Tav I put that sticky note in the bag n shit because I thought it might be mighty fuckin cool if you called me up sometime and we could talk as bros,"

Tavros was giggling now too. "Alright!" he blurted out, somewhat flustered at the offer.

"Great! Guess I'll be talkin to ya soon Nitram," Gamzee said, relieved. The line on the other end went dead, and Gamzee slumped back down to the floor, except this time it was a mirthful slump. Things had gone much better than he'd expected.


End file.
